


Sticks & Stones

by NightOwlFury



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: #just friends, Bullying, Depression, Eating Disorders, Eventual Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio, Gayness, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, I'm Sorry, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, M/M, Why Did I Write This?, almost everyone thinks Hinata is dating an OMC, but he's not, i can't tag, why do I hurt my child???
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-31
Updated: 2016-12-30
Packaged: 2018-07-28 12:10:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7639672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightOwlFury/pseuds/NightOwlFury
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hinata doesn't know what happened. Suddenly they think he's different: that he's wrong; unnatural.  The attacks are getting to him, they're changing him and people are starting to notice. What happened to that cheerful ray of sunshine?<br/>They're breaking him, each day, every day, and he doesn't know how to make it stop. He shouldn't have this problem in the first place, it isn't the 20th century anymore, after all.</p>
<p> (I dunno I'm a sad person)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> こんいちは. Pls be warned there is a lot of bullying and angst and self-deprecation in this story omg why do I do this???
> 
> Also this was inspired in a way by nightshade_19's story 'What Did I Do...?', at least partially, so go check that out too it's gr8

Hinata was speeding down the halls of Karasuno excitedly, eager to get to afternoon practice. He was so distracted that he didn’t notice a small cluster of first year-boys snickering at him slightly as he passed by. It wasn’t anything odd, anyways.

Practice went smoothly; Hinata was able to spike most of the balls and made a good bit of progress on his receives. As the team was heading back to the club room, Hinata was blissfully unaware of several students mingling strangely by the gates. Kageyama did notice, but dismissed it as just an annoying gathering of kids, it wasn’t like it was unusual.

The small carrot-haired middle blocker was the last to leave the club room, seeing as he had clumsily spilt water on his bag and was frantically rescuing his belongings. Once he had mostly dried everything, he exited the room and locked the door behind him, having been left with the keys.

Hinata walked back towards the bike rack, his slightly soggy bag not dampening his mood too much.

However, when he reached the rack with his bike chained to it, he paused, seeing three boys his age casually talking by his bicycle. It was a brief pause however, and he started to move forward again to get his bike, but he was stopped by a taunting voice.

“Hey look, it’s the fag!” A wiry boy with sandy blond hair and slitted eyes called out.

Hinata stopped dead and snapped his head over to the boys. He recognised the one who called out as a student in his classes, but he hadn't seen the other two before. “What?”

The second boy, who was tall and bulky and looked like he should be at least a second year, sniggered. “He looks like a fat elf, no wonder he doesn't have any friends.”

Hinata furrowed his brow and scowled. What was going on?

The third boy looked slightly less eager to make fun of Hinata, but he still guffawed and snickered along with the other two.

The first boy leaned toward the third one and pretended to whisper into his ear, loud enough for Hinata to hear. “These people are what happens when you don’t use a condom!”

Hinata could feel his face heating up to unhealthy temperatures. “What’s your problem?!” He exclaimed, glaring at the jerks in front of him.

“Our problem is you, you queer!” The first boy took a few steps towards Hinata, “We can’t have fags like you walking around infecting everyone with your fucking disease.”

“I’m not even–“

_SMACK._

Hinata stumbled back a few steps and looked down, cupping his jaw. He didn’t understand what was going on, why these students had just decided to corner him and attack. What did he do?

Before Hinata could regain his composure enough to do something the second boy had approached and kicked Hinata in the stomach, _hard_. Hinata fell over and started coughing violently, curling into a ball around his injured abdomen, unable to do anything.

For awhile the boys continued to kick him and shout insults at him, and he tried to feebly fight back a few times by grabbing or kicking at their feet but he was already too injured to do much of anything.

Eventually the boys got tired of him and scoffed, kicking some dust in his face before walking off, laughing at him over their shoulders.

Hinata stayed there on the ground for awhile, grateful that it was late in the day and no one had seen him. After somewhere between five and ten minutes, he couldn’t tell exactly, he slowly crawled onto his hands and knees and pushed himself up, wiping his face with his grazed hand as he stood. When he took his hand away he noticed some blood on his palm, and he frowned, touching his lip lightly, which appeared to be bleeding.

Hinata was tired and sore, but he quickly unlocked his bike and started to slowly ride home. His mother most likely wasn’t worried, as he often got carried away practicing extra with Kageyama and had gotten home late before.

After a long and tiresome ride over the mountain, Hinata finally arrived at his home and quickly dropped his bike on the lawn. There was no car in the driveway, so his mom and Natsu must be out somewhere. Hinata breathed out a sigh in relief and took the key out from under the flower pot to unlock the front door, slipping inside and quickly heading upstairs to shower.

He dropped his now completely dry bag on his futon and grabbed a pair of pyjamas. Hinata entered the hall bathroom and flipped the light switch on, locking the door behind him. Turning to look in the mirror, Hinata was greeted with a large red bruise on the left side of his face, down near his jaw and the corner of his mouth. His bottom lip was split but it had stopped bleeding and was crusted over with dried blood, and there was a bit of dirt on his forehead, but other than that his face wasn’t too bad.

Hinata turned on the shower and stripped down, looking at himself again in the mirror and wincing when he saw his torso. He had several large bruises on his stomach and across his chest, which were beginning to darken to a reddish-purple colour. There was also a purpling mark on his forearm, from where they had stepped on him when he attempted to grab their feet. It looked faintly like a boot mark, which worried him because he didn’t want anyone to suspect anything. It was embarrassing, being ambushed by boys who were stronger than he was, being called a fag and a queer with such malice and disgust.

Hinata sighed and, checking the water’s heat, stepped into the shower and began to clean his beaten body.

 

* * *

 

After applying some (hopefully affective) cream to his injuries, Hinata went downstairs and frowned when he realised that his mother and sister still weren’t home. Walking into the kitchen, he noticed a piece of yellow paper on the island and sat on one of the bar stools beside the stone countertop. _Shouyou, Natsu and I had to go on a last-minute trip up to your aunt’s house to help with packing up. We’ll be home the day after tomorrow, there are leftovers in the fridge so don’t eat them all at once. Sorry it was so abrupt. ~ Mom._

Hinata blinked and sighed, annoyed that their aunt was constantly calling his mother up to help her with tasks, the most recent thing being packing to move in with her boyfriend. Hinata didn’t know much about moving, but he did know people don’t usually bring all of their possessions with them when moving into an already furnished house.

He was about to take out dinner to heat up when suddenly the jarring voice of bully #2 came back. _“He looks like a fat elf”._ Was Hinata overweight? He didn’t think so, but when he though about it he realised he had gained a pound or two in the last month, and people had been commenting on his eating habits. Hell, even his own mother thought he ate too much, shown in the note she left warning him not to eat everything in one sitting.

Suddenly Hinata wasn’t so hungry anymore. He took a glass down from the cupboard with a window and filled it with water, using the sink set in the island across from the ovens. He gulped it down quickly and refilled the glass, taking it with him to the round dining table and setting it down on the cotton placemat. He then retrieved one of the many manga books from his room and sat at the mahogany table.

Hinata read for about an hour, and he was nearly finished with the book when he heard a knock on the door. Hinata paused, confused, because they rarely had visitors and if they did it was usually one of Natsu’s friends. He carefully marked his place in the book and set it down on the placemat, standing up and walking through the living room and to the front door, which stood beside the stairs that turned at a ninety degree angle after the first two steps and only consisted of nine stairs in total, letting off again to the left so that the second floor was visible to the left of Hinata’s position. Standing on his toes to look out the middle panel of glass at the top of the door, he was surprised to find his neighbour standing at the door. Noticing Hinata peeking through the window, the sun-tanned boy with a medium-length, thick mohawk grinned at him.

Lowering himself, Hinata opened the door a few inches. “Hey, Kobayashi-san. Do you need something?”

Kobayashi was still in his school uniform, despite it being nearly seven o’clock. “Hi, Hinata-san! I was just looking for my sister’s cat, he’s big and orange, have you seen him?”

Hinata shook his head. “No, sorry. I’ll be sure to let you know if I do.” He was about to close the door when Kobayashi stopped him.

“Gee, what happened to your face, Hinata-san?” Kobayashi piped up, curiosity displayed on his face, which was dusted with freckles across his nose.

Hinata wasn’t feeling very social now, and he knew he wasn’t being the most polite, but he really just wanted to be alone right now. “I fell down the stairs.” He provided the first thing that came to mind.

Kobayashi furrowed his brow and looked past Hinata. “Your stairs are mostly carpeted.”

Hinata bit his tongue before he could snap at his oblivious neighbour. He was definitely not in his usual mood today. “I smacked my face on the banister.” 

Kobayashi seemed to accept this explanation for the most part, scratching his buzzed head, which had grown out so that it looked quite fuzzy, and smiling. “Oh, okay. I hope you feel better, Hinata-san. The cat’s name is Mikan, by the way, in case you spot him. See you later!” Kobayashi waved as he sprinted off to the next house to ask about his sister’s cat.

Hinata shook his head exasperatedly and closed the door, forgetting his book on the table as he headed upstairs to his bedroom. After setting his alarm clock, he collapsed onto his bed, uncommonly exhausted, and fell asleep in record time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments motivate me :)  
> Constructive feedback is appreciated but pls be nice I'm kind of emotional. Also if I'm using the Japanese honorifics incorrectly for situations I apologise I only know the basics.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god thank you for all the comments they made me so happy :D All this support really motivates me!!  
> In this chapter I introduce some more OC's (they just keep appearing I need to stop gah), and I'm not sure I like this chapter as much but I hope it's okay. Also I probably should've let you know before not to expect routine updates because I suck and I don't write very regularly.  
> Anyways enjoy :)

For the first time ever, Hinata skipped morning practice.

It’s not like he wanted to: his injuries were just too sore and even if he _could_ play, he thought Suga was unlikely to let him. He also wanted to avoid as many questions as possible.

Throughout the first half of the day, he got a few curious glances from some of his friendlier classmates, but he didn’t receive too many questions. He could tell the sandy-haired boy from the day before was eyeing him, but Hinata avoided looking in his direction whatsoever.

However, when class ended and he was about to speed off to some secluded area to avoid the team, the sandy-haired boy cornered him at his desk. Hinata glanced behind him only to realise that the teacher had left, which meant only he, bully #1, and a few students in the corner eating remained.

“Hey fag,” Hinata’s fists clenched, “pretty nasty cut you’ve got there. Want a few more?”

Hinata’s shoulders were tense and hands still balled into fists at his side when he heard a softer voice call out. “Leave him alone, Itou.” The voice was fairly quiet yet deep, and had a distinctively harsh undertone.

‘Itou’ spun around with an irritable expression before seeing the girl standing behind him. Her nose was wrinkled in apparent disgust for the bully, and she had long red hair tied back in pigtails. The pigtails might have made her look younger, but her calm and superior expression added on with her sharp slate grey eyes cancelled out the pigtails’ childlike aesthetic. Seeing the girl’s expression, Ito paused.

“I was just poking fun at the kid, geez, making a big deal out of everything…” Itou mumbled as he slunk off, glancing back at the girl a few times.

  The girl turned to Hinata, holding out a peachy pale hand. Her expression had morphed from hostile to polite and she smiled kindly. “Sorry about him, some people just really need to go fuck themselves.”

Hinata was taken aback by her crass words, not expecting such harsh vocabulary. He shook her hand hesitantly and scratched the back of his neck. “No, it’s okay.”

“I’m Sasaki Momo, you’re Hinata right?”

“Yeah. Um, thanks for helping me, but I should probably go to lunch now.” Hinata stood up and took out his bento, slinging his bag over his shoulder.

“Hey, do you want to eat with my friends and I? Unless you have other plans.” Sasaki tilted her head in question, slate coloured eyes now friendly instead of cold.

Hinata was about to respond with a polite ‘no, I have plans, thank you’, when he paused. He did want to avoid Kageyama, and his unavoidable questions and demands of _why he wasn’t at practice_ , and he didn’t really see why he shouldn’t make new friends.

“Uh… sure, I guess.”

Sasaki smiled and turned around, leading Hinata over to her friend group, which Hinata quickly realised consisted completely of girls. He didn’t mind though, that had never really bothered him.

Sasaki introduced her friends, most of them first-years like she and Hinata.

As Hinata sat down between Sasaki and a stocky ravenette, Kita, he remembers, a small girl across from him pipes up, with short brown hair and round dark brown eyes. “You’re on the boys’ volleyball team, right Hinata-san?”

Hinata looks up, eager to discuss his favourite topic. “Yeah, I’m a middle blocker!” He beamed.

The girls giggled at his excitement before the dark-eyed girl, Mizushima, continues. “I’m on the girls’ volleyball team. I only started playing my last year of junior high, so I’m not very experienced or anything. I’m not a regular.” She grinned nervously, her cheeks reddening slightly in embarrassment.

“That’s fine! I’m not very good at volleyball either, I’m just good at jumping…” Hinata trailed off, picking at his bento, which wasn’t looking very appetising.

As the girls continued to talk amongst each other, Hinata started to feel himself fade out of the conversation and he awkwardly sat there, feeling sort of lonely as he looked out the window. He felt bad about leaving Kageyama all alone during lunch; maybe he had been a bit unreasonable. It’s not like he could avoid everyone until his wounds cleared up, and Kageyama probably wouldn’t care about that so much as his absence from that morning’s practice.

“–nata? Hinata?” Sasaki was saying his name and waving a hand in his face, laughing good-naturedly.

Hinata started and turned red, seeing the girls all looking at him. “Sorry.” He muttered as the girls chuckled at his obliviousness.

“You okay? You haven’t said anything in awhile.” Mizushima questioned, scooping a spoonful of her lunch into her mouth.

Hinata smiled, but he felt it waver. “Yeah, no, I’m good. I was just thinking.” He looked down and realised he hadn’t eaten anything. He wasn’t really hungry right now anyway.

Lunch was over quickly, and the rest of the day passed by in a rush despite Hinata’s disinterest. At the end of the day, Hinata was walking through the throngs of students eager to escape the hellhole of school, contemplating whether or not to show up at practice that afternoon, when a hand grabbed his shoulder tightly.

Hinata stiffened, immediately thinking it was Itou and his cronies. He shrugged the hand off sharply and whipped around to face his attacker, freezing when he saw who it actually was.

“Hey Shouyou, why weren’t you at practice th– What the hell happened to your face?” Nishinoya’s expression turned serious as he saw the purple bruise on Hinata’s cheek and jaw, his eyes flashing when he also noticed the cut lip.

“Oh– Uh, hey Noya-senpai. It’s nothing, I just fell down the stairs.” Hinata grinned, shrugging helplessly. He decided to ignore the first part of his senpai’s question.

“Oh, well if that’s all, I guess…”

“Yep! Now come on, we’ll be late for practice!” Hinata started speed-walking towards the gym, deciding now he didn’t have a choice of whether to go or not, or else Noya would question him.

Entering the gym with Noya right behind him, Hinata paused when seeing the whole team pause at his appearance. Some of the faces looked shocked, others confused; one was angry.

“Where the hell were you at practice this morning!?” Kageyama looked nearly livid as he approached Hinata, his shoulders hunched and fists balled.

Hinata’s brain went into overdrive trying to find a plausible excuse, knowing they wouldn’t buy that he simply slept in. “Uh… I– I was helping out a friend– look for their cat.” He mentally cringed at his lame response.

Suga was at Kageyama’s side then, putting a firm hand on his shoulder and holding him back. Suga gave Hinata a calm look, clearly underlaying concern. “Are you okay, Hinata? Where did you get that bruise and cut?”

“He says he fell down the stairs.” Noya piped up from behind Hinata, making him jump, not realising the small libero was still there.

The corners of Suga’s mouth turned down slightly.

The rest of the team was now surrounding them, curious, and Daichi decided to take control of the situation. “Hinata, if you’re fit to play, we should start practice.”

Hinata nodded, and the team dispersed to start their warm ups. Hinata followed Noya over to Tanaka and Asahi instead of going to Kageyama like usual, seeing the dark-haired setter frown in of the corner of his eye. Hinata felt guilty, but after Kageyama’s outburst he wanted to avoid him even more, and he wasn’t entirely sure why. He thinks he just doesn’t want Kageyama to think he’s weak and stop tossing to him.

Practice went okay, for the most part. Hinata kept his jacket on, arguing that he was just cold in order to keep the mark on his forearm out of sight. At one point he blocked a volleyball and it hit the bruise directly, making it even more sore, but he played it off and said he was tired, moving off to the sidelines with Ennoshita and Narita. He chatted with the two while they practiced movements even though he didn’t know them the best, but he supposed that wasn’t a bad thing in this situation.

When afternoon practice had finished and they were packing away their things in the club room, Kageyama had approached him. Everyone else had left and Hinata had just managed to shove everything in his bag when he heard Kageyama speak from behind him. “Since when do you have such a good friend that you would skip practice to help them look for a cat?”

Hinata sighed and turned around, taking note that the irritable setter was only standing about two feet from him. “Can’t you just drop it, Kageyama? It’s not that big a deal, it was just one practice.” He fiddled with his bag strap subconsciously.

Kageyama was silent until Hinata attempted to get by him. “I don’t believe you actually fell down the stairs,” Hinata paused and looked back at Kageyama from the doorway. Kageyama turned to gaze at him unblinkingly, “that’s the most common excuse in the book.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hahaha yeah I have trouble writing Kageyama I never feel like I can get his personality right so sorry if he's a little OOC.  
> Also I may not update for a bit because I'm going to be otherwise occupied for maybe a week or so and I haven't written much of the next chapter D: Sorry!  
> Pls leave comments even if you don't have a lot to say they make me feel liked :P


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahaha hi (^_^;  
> So it's been a bit longer than a week... Sorry about that. I've kind of just been procrastinating and wasting my life on tumblr when I should've been wasting my life writing fanfiction, obviously.  
> The end of this chapter is kind of abrupt and I have an awkward time skip in there as well, but I figured I ought to update so apologies for the weirdness...  
> Also let me know if I'm writing Kageyama terribly bc I probably am I mean it's hard man his personality is 85% volleyball and 15% grumpiness goddammit.

Hinata didn’t come across Itou or the other bullies at the bike rack that day. Maybe they had already left; maybe Sasaki actually had some affect on Itou; he didn’t know. But he was glad he didn’t sustain any more injuries because then people would definitely start questioning what happened.

When Hinata got home, he entered his living room and sat on the couch, leaning back and staring at the ceiling for a few minutes. After several moments of sitting stone still he sighed and felt his stomach rumble. Realising he hadn’t eaten anything, Hinata was about to get up and get something from the pantry when he frowned, remembering the bullies words from yesterday, about him being fat. Hinata weakly dragged himself up the stairs to the bathroom, taking the scale out from under the sink and stepping on it, waiting for the numbers to stop climbing. 

117 pounds. Hinata weighed 117 pounds. That’s way too much for someone his height. He lifted his shirt up in order to get a look at his stomach and scowled at the excess fat, poking at the flabbiness angrily. His stomach growled in response and he pulled his shirt down. What should he do? He was hungry and hadn’t eaten for a day, but he didn’t want to be fat and ugly, everyone would hate him even more.

Sighing, Hinata decided to just chew on some gum and distract himself with television (because who has time for homework?).

Not long into an episode of Spider-man, Hinata felt his pocket vibrate and he reached into it, pulling out his phone and flipping it up to see the notification. It was a text from Noya, which wasn’t uncommon, but Hinata pulled up the message anyway. Being tired from lack of food, he only briefly glanced at the image Noya had sent of some volleyball meme before sending a short reply of ‘haha!’.

Noya texted back a few seconds later with a question mark, and he seemed to still be typing so Hinata waited, yawning silently.

_‘What’s up ur so quiet 2day dude’_

Hinata paused, unsure of what to say. _‘(^_^ sry Noya I’m just tired cuz I didn’t sleep good after I fell last night!’_

_‘Ok but try and sleep better 2nite bc Kageyama will beat ur ass if ur late tmrw for practice again’_

_‘I will!’_

 

_––––––––––––awkward time skip–––––––––––––_

 

Hinata opened his eyes to the bright sunlight shining in through his forgotten window, the blinds open. Turning his head to check the time, Hinata blinked when he realised it was getting close to quarter to seven in the morning.

Before he could register his own movements he was bolting out of bed, grabbing his clothes and speeding to the bathroom. He quickly got dressed and zoomed back into his bedroom, getting his things together and shoving it all in his bag before high-tailing it out of his house and onto his bike, which was lying abandoned on his lawn again.

“I’m gonna be late, I’m gonna be late, I’m so dead!” Hinata muttered to himself as he pedalled as fast as he possibly could down his neighbourhood street.

He was going so fast that he nearly couldn’t swerve to avoid the stupid cat that walked right into the path of his bicycle like an idiot. However, he turned sharply just in time to not steamroll the tomcat, who turned to stare at him as if _he_ should be the annoyed one. Skidding off the curb, Hinata fell sideways off his bike, scraping his knees and grazing his palms, causing him to hiss in pain.

After collecting himself and pulling his bike back up to the pavement, Hinata turned to frown at the offending cat, a stocky ginger tom with pale green eyes. Then Hinata remembered Kobayashi coming to his door and asking about his sister’s big orange cat. His eyes flickered upwards as if to ask _‘why now, God?’_ before he focused back down on the cat.

Hinata approached him, bike forgotten on the grass beside the road, and held out a hand while crouching down. “Mikan?”

The cat looked up at Hinata and he could swear the thing _grinned_ , causing Hinata to pull back slightly because _damn_ what a creepy cat. Disregarding the weird expression of who he assumed to be Mikan, Hinata patted his head awkwardly and picked him up. Grunting at the weight of this freaking elephant-cat hybrid, Hinata turned to speed-walk as fast as he could with a heavy cat in his arms back towards Kobayashi’s house, still aware of the increasing risk of being later and later to practice.

Knocking on the door, assuming Kobayashi was still at home since he went to a closer school and didn’t have a reason to get up any earlier, Hinata shifted the weight of Mikan in his arms, who seemed content to go inconveniently limp there.

The door opened, and a sleepy-looking Kobayashi appeared, still bedecked in a white t-shirt and shorts from the night before. Seeing the cat and Hinata’s matching orange hair, Kobayashi grinned widely, perking up. “Hinata-san! You found Mikan!” He turned back to shout into his house. “RAI! HINATA-SAN FOUND YOUR CAT!”

Hinata winced at the volume of the fourteen year-old’s voice, who turned back to him and smiled. “Between you and me, this cat is really creepy.” He whispered, giving the cat a distrustful glance.

Hinata smiled slightly just as a girl appeared at the door, with long hair the exact same colour as her brother’s, but with eyes and complexion a shade lighter. She seemed to be about a year younger than her brother, and she was wearing a pink t-shirt with grey jeans and a blue and white baseball cap. Spotting her cat, Rai’s face lit up and she quickly took the indifferent cat from Hinata’s arms, mumbling a thank you before retreating into the house again.

Kobayashi rubbed the back of his neck. “Sorry, she isn’t the most polite,” He paused, seeing the scrapes on Hinata’s knees and hands. “Man, what happened? Did Mikan do something?” He lifted up Hinata’s wrists to get a better look at the raw palms.

“No, it’s fine, I just didn’t see him and had to swerve on my bike to avoid him. I fell off, but it’s fine, they’ll heal fast.” Hinata smiled brightly, tugging his arms back before the sleeve of his jacket could ride up.

“We should at least put some ointment or something on it so it doesn’t get infected or whatever,” Kobayashi said. “D’you wanna come in?”

Hinata blushed slightly at Kobayashi’s concern. “Actually I’m already gonna be really late to practice as it is, so I should probably just go–“

“Okay, just wait one second!” Kobayashi rushed off before Hinata could protest, leaving the door wide open, and returned an excruciatingly long minute later with a small tube of cream for cuts and scrapes and a box of band-aids. He shoved them into Hinata’s arms along with a ripped off piece of paper with something scrawled on it. “Here, take these and once you get to school you can put them on. That’s my number,” He said, pointing to the scrap of loose leaf paper, “call me or text if you want.”

Hinata could tell he was most likely blushing profusely. “I can’t ta–“

“If you want to return the other stuff later, you can come by after school. Just go for now, and don’t fall off your bike again!” Kobayashi grinned and flashed Hinata a peace sign before closing the front door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey weeaboos I just wanted to make sure you knew that _117 LBS. IS MOST DEFINITELY NOT OVERWEIGHT_ at Hinata's age and height, he is just under the impression it is because of bullies ;_; So please don't start to think you are overweight because of that, u r beautiful and i AM A SAP god.
> 
> U know I read something once that said that the reason we feel the need to squeeze the life out of something/someone who is cute is because our brains don't know how to react to seeing something adorable so our first instict is to eliminate it because we don't understand it and I don't know if that says a LOT about our species or not but imma let you sit on that for awhile.
> 
> ~~BTW I am trash so I wouldn't expect an update for awhile unless you can find a way to motivate me haha~~ pls comment and stuff getting feedback is the best feeling k thx bye


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kageyama gets angry again! Stuff happens! Hinata is awkward and bullied someone help the poor kid!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aha… Hi. So it's been… 4 months? Sorry about that I kind of forgot about this/had no ideas for a while… But I'm back now, for however briefly! The chapter is short as always and is probably set up weird because I wrote most of it as a seperate scene, but I tried, right?
> 
> Anyways sorry for my horrible updating habits and I hope you like this chapter! :3

Hinata was applying cream to his knees and palms in the club room. He would feel bad if he didn’t use what Kobayashi had so kindly given him but it also meant he wouldn’t be able to play volleyball this morning. It might’ve been just as well, though, since he didn’t want to irritate any of his bruises, which were slowly beginning to heal.

After he finished rubbing the ointment onto his scrapes, Hinata got up and pulled down the sleeves of his club jacket, which he had pushed up so as to avoid getting cream on the cuffs.

Entering the gym, those who were nearest to the doors noticed him first, and one of those few was, unfortunately, Kageyama Tobio.

Nishinoya clapped Hinata on the back and gave him a sympathetic look before making a beeline away from the approaching raven, who was practically radiating anger.

“What the hell, dumbass?!”

Hinata seemed to shrink a little as Kageyama loomed over him. “I slept in and then I found my friend’s cat so I had to bring it back.”

Kageyama looked like he was about to say something before Sugawara stepped over. “It’s alright Hinata, it’s just unusual for you to miss practice, especially two times in a row.” He smiled kindly before turning away and steering Kageyama towards the court.

Hinata scratched the back of his neck nervously before joining the team on the court.

 

* * *

 

Hinata was eating lunch with the girls again, as it seemed to be becoming a regular occurrence. Some of the girls were standing, holding their bentos precariously as they laughed, or, in Ren’s case, acting out an entire scene of Macbeth with Junko. Sasaki and Mizushima were looking out the window to the basketball court, where there were several students practising. Sasaki chuckled and whispered something to Mizushima, who giggled in response. The rest of the girls started to crowd around the window too, staring out onto the basketball court visible from it. Some of them were giggling and chuckling while others began to full-out laugh. Hinata stood up, curious as to what was causing such a commotion. All of a sudden, the girls' voices hushed and their smiles vanished. They started mumbling worriedly amongst themselves, clearly concerned at what was happening on the court.

“Sasaki-san what's going on?" Hinata questioned as he started moving towards the window, excusing himself as he nudged through the group. Sasaki turned, worry evident in her grey eyes, and gestured to the edge of the court. Hinata shifted his gaze down and caught sight of a small gaggle of students, most wearing jerseys in order to play basketball comfortably, gathered around a tall figure lying halfway on the court and halfway off. Hinata couldn't tell who it was from afar, so he turned to Sasaki again, concerned. "Sasaki-san, who's that? What happened?"

It was Mizushima who answered. "It's Kageyama-kun, he was walking by and was hit in the face with a basketball. It looks like he was struck pretty hard, he may be unconscious."

Hinata's eyes widened even further, and he quickly scrambled to the door, subconsciously grabbing his bag on his way out. He ran through the building and out the door to the basketball court, sweat building on his forehead (only not from the exercise). He spotted Kageyama ahead; the students seemed to be giving him some more space as a teacher had appeared next to him. Kageyama was sitting up now, holding his face with one hand. He took his hand away and Hinata saw that his nose was bleeding, and quite possibly his mouth too.

Before Hinata could think, he was sprinting over, his bag clutched in his fingers tightly as he skidded to a stop beside the teacher. He fell to his knees and grabbed Kageyama's bloody hand, the rest of the world fading in the background like he was in some sort of shoujo manga. Managing to unzip and rummage through his bag without letting go of his startled friend's hand, Hinata pulled out some tissues and his water bottle. He retracted his hand in order to get the tissues damp, and he was probably just imagining Kageyama's hand following his own for a second as he moved away. Taking the wet tissues, Hinata began to dab at Kageyama's bloody nose, which was still flowing at a pretty steady rate. Distantly, he heard the teacher call for someone to get the nurse.

"Kageyama, open your mouth." Hinata instructed without moving his eyes from the tissue he was holding to Kageyama's nose. Kageyama, surprisingly, complied the first time, opening his mouth so Hinata could check for blood. His mouth and teeth were red from the nosebleed, but it didn't look like Kageyama had broken any teeth or damaged his tongue. Hinata noticed that Kageyama's lip was bleeding, however, as he must have bitten down on it when he was hit. Hinata handed Kageyama some more damp tissues, still holding a few to his nose. "Here, hold this to your lip, it's bleeding."

Kageyama took the tissues slowly and held them to his mouth, looking at the ground. He mumbled something, his cheeks taking on a light pink tone. "What?" Hinata questioned.

"I can hold the tissues to my nose too."

Hinata blinked, then reddened. "Oh," he mumbled, taking his hand away and giving Kageyama some clean tissues. "Here."

Hinata now looked away awkwardly, and took in his surroundings. The teacher was looking between Kageyama and the school doors worriedly, waiting for one of the students to return with the nurse, and it seemed like the rest of the students had dispersed for the most part. A few still lingered, looking worried or confused, and Hinata looked at the ground in embarrassment.

The student soon returned with the nurse, who looked both annoyed and concerned as he rushed over with a small box of medical supplies.

From then Hinata didn't really pay attention to what happened. He thinks that the nurse, Akari-san, must have cleaned up most of the blood, and then taken Kageyama back to his office to make sure he was okay.

Hinata stood up and realised it was almost the end of lunch, and he only had about two minutes left to get to class. From there he jogged to his classroom, barely reaching it before the bell rang.

 

* * *

It was after school, and Hinata was contemplating whether or not to go to afternoon practice. On the one hand, people would worry if he didn’t go, and on the other, Hinata was even more anxious to face Kageyama after this afternoon. He vaguely realised in the back of his mind that the fact that he enjoyed volleyball wasn’t a deciding factor anymore.

”Hey fag! What was with the dramatic attempt at rescuing your boyfriend? You looked like an idiot!” A voice called as footsteps approached him at the bike rack. "You should keep your disgusting display to yourself, it was only a nosebleed for christ's sake."

"It was pretty funny, Itou.” Crony #2 laughed stupidly.

"I know, right? I nailed him right in the face. It was worth the fag's reaction to see all that blood pour out of his nose."

Red was all he saw before Hinata screamed and leapt towards the three, angrier than he has ever remembered being in his life. Before he could get a swipe in, however, crony #2 grabbed him by the back of his shirt and yanked him back.

Itou laughed at Hinata's attempt at vengeance for his friend. "If you try to fight back, we're gonna hurt your little boyfriend too, fag, and you wouldn't want that, would you?"

Hinata froze before going limp, realising he couldn't resist without putting Kageyama in danger.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought, faggot.” Itou sneered.

Hinata couldn’t prevent anything after that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eheh, why do I do this? The world may never know. I'll try to update sooner than 4 months… Maybe… But comments still help and knowing people are enjoying the story is motivational! Let me know what all'a y'all think! :)

**Author's Note:**

> Comments motivate me :)  
> Constructive feedback is appreciated but pls be nice I'm kind of emotional. Also if I'm using the Japanese honorifics incorrectly for situations I apologise I only know the basics.


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